An incredible situation has developed with Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele. PSG still bails out the player for only 50 million euros, this was the amount of compensation prescribed in the player’s contract. According to L’Équipe, the Catalans will receive only half of this amount, 25 million euros, with the player taking the rest.
This option in the contract existed only until the end of July. And it seemed that PSG did not have time to arrange a transfer, although nothing depended on Barcelona, and the player gave the go-ahead. The deal was not done before the deadline, but it will happen anyway. According to Fabrizio Romano, PSG managed to send a letter to Barcelona, and this is enough to keep the purchase of the player for 50 million euros, and the transfer is expected to be formalized in the next few days.
The deal, at first glance, seems crazy. Configuration too unfavorable for Barcelona. Especially against the background of how in the same transfer window Soboslai, Havertz, Tonali and others earned €70 million Dembele has a unique set of qualities: speed, dribbling and great passing with him. He can solve episodes on his own, like, for example, in the game with Atlético last season.
So what happened? The television presenter Elena Kondis regularly attends Barcelona matches and has become one of the main connoisseurs of this club. She gave information about the transfer of Malcolm to Zenit and the purchase of Kunde, and now she said that Dembélé had already said goodbye to his partners. According to her, the president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, tried to convince the winger, but he could not and now he is angry with PSG. He even wants to declare “war” on the French club (also information from Kondis). True, it is not entirely clear what this means.
Although it must be understood that such unfavorable conditions for Barça appeared in Dembélé’s contract for objective reasons. For example, Araujo, Pedri, Torres and Fati have termination clauses of 1,000 million euros, and here there are only 50 million of which the club receives only half. The fact is that a year ago Dembélé was a free agent. Then Chelsea, PSG, Bayern, Liverpool and other clubs negotiated with him. At the same time, Barcelona tried not only to keep the player, but also to agree with him on a 40% reduction in salary. Hence the compensation conditions so pleasant for a footballer.
Ousmane Dembele
Photo: Fran Santiago/Getty Images
Another important detail from L’Équipe. Dembélé was disappointed by how Barcelona tried to negotiate the transfer of Mbappé. According to the publication, it was that the deal will include Gavi and Dembélé, who will proceed in the opposite direction. It seems that the player was put off by the very fact that such a scenario was being considered at the club. And this at a time when the Barça coach Xavi repeated over and over again that he needed Dembélé:
“For me, he has the potential to be the best in the world in his position. I said it in my presentation and I’ll say it again today: he is a valuable asset to me. I give him a lot of confidence and he gives it to me. We cannot control the market. There are payouts, and that is the player’s decision. I see that he is very well adjusted. He told us that he was happy at the club,” Xavi said.
Xavi and Ousmane Dembele
Photo: David S. Bustamante/Getty Images
Apparently, the last statement was in the head of the Barcelona management, which remained too calm. By the way, the situation is somewhat similar to the one that develops in parallel with Mbappé. The PSG leadership assures that the striker promised not to leave for free. In this sense, it seems a bit strange that the heads of the best clubs are guided by words and not by documents.
Although there are significant differences in these situations. The Parisian club does not have a comparable player for Mbappé’s position. But Barcelona have another right winger: Rafinha. Due to Dembélé’s injury, he played more last season and he did it very decently, he became the best player of the season in passes into the area. It is not so obvious which of the Rafinha/Dembele duo is better. Maybe he’s still the last one, but he’s also the most traumatic.
Ousmane Dembele (centre) comes on as a substitute for Rafinha
Photo: Alex Caparrós/Getty Images
In any case, having two players of this type in the same position at the same time is a luxury that seems redundant. Unsurprisingly, after Dembélé’s departure, Barcelona plans to sign not a new right winger, but defender Joao Cancelo (reporting by Fabrizio Romano).
Barcelona is in financial trouble. Including inflated salaries makes it difficult to declare soccer players. From a purely game point of view, the departure of Dembélé seemed an acceptable solution. The only question is under what conditions. According to L’Équipe, PSG and Barcelona are still planning to negotiate, so the transfer amount may exceed 50 million euros, but the French club will be able to delay the payment. If the sale price is activated, you must immediately pay the full amount: 50 million euros.
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